Life is good.  Over the Memorial Day holiday a large number of retired Army JAGs descended on New Orleans for our annual RAJA meeting.  We assembled at the Hotel Monteleone right smack in the French Quarter.

Expensive?  Not really and remember, we all have Army retirement checks and most of us are on Social Security.  Plus, we got our Social Security stimulus checks.  So, we stimulated the New Orleans’ economy.

Dennis and Jeanne Hunt hosted RAJA (Retired Army Judge Advocate Association – maybe it should be RAJAA – not the kind of issue you want to raise in an organization consisting only of lawyers).  I was planning on saying that Dennis and Jeanne’s planning and execution were as efficient as Mussolini’s on-time trains.  But, then I looked it up on Snopes.com and the Mussolini bit is a myth.  Man, I think I was happier before Snopes.  Anyway, Dennis and Jeanne did a fantastic job!

On the first full day, we toured New Orleans.  Of course, if you are going to tour the Big Easy, you have to visit one of their cemeteries.  As you probably know, because of the water level, all of the caskets are placed in above-ground tombs.  Our tour guide explained the process of removing old remains to make room for the new deceased member of the family.  I think you have to live your whole life in New Orleans to go along with that process.  After hearing of the process, all I could think of was the Church Lady on Saturday Night Live saying, “Isn’t that special.”

Our tour guide told us that we were at the cemetery (St. Louis Cemetery # 1) that was damaged and desecrated during the filming of the movie, Easy Rider.  I don’t remember the cemetery scene.  I only remember that the movie had a happy ending.  There were no complaints from residents of the cemeteries about Katrina.  But, some of those same residents are still receiving relief checks.

The bus trip took all day and we never left the city.  But, I had no idea where I was.  The tour guide would say, “The river is on our left.”  “Now, the river is on our right.”  “The lake is behind you.”  “This area was all under water.”  Duh, big help.

It has been almost four years since Katrina and the parts of the city we looked at showed great signs of recovery.  But, who knows what we didn’t see.  The amount of human suffering that went on during the storm and its aftermath is impossible to quantify.  Let’s hope that the lesson we took away from Katrina will insure it doesn’t happen again (Not the natural disaster, but the way we handled it).

RAJA was a great success.  Tim Naccarato is the third leader of this august body.  John Jay Douglass was the president for the first twenty plus years.  He and Bruce Babbitt ran the financials for the organization on the back of an envelope.  Now that takes skill.  Anyway, in 1994, while in Reno, Nevada the organization rolled the dice and selected a board of directors to carry the group forward.  Jim Mundt was selected to take John Jay’s place and RAJA moved forward. 

Then, in 2005, Tim took the reins.  One of the first things he did was do away with the cumbersome site selection committee.  Tim now twists arms until someone agrees to host a future meeting.  This is much more effective that the site selection committee.  Because everyone knows what he is up to, a lot of his emails are never answered.  But, he has lined up Steve and Pauline Lancaster to host next year in Indianapolis, and Dave and Lynn Graham and Fred and Janet Borch to host 2011 in Charlottesville, the Home of the Army Lawyer.  In a weak moment Tim convinced Mike Marchand to host 2012 in Dallas.  Please keep the latter confidential, because Mike hasn’t told his wife, Jan, yet.

Well,  RAJA survived New Orleans, and New Orleans survived RAJA.  No surprises there.  Sadly, the only lesson I took away from the meeting is that I don’t want to be buried in New Orleans.  Because it is a given that sometime in the future, someone is going to break into your casket, gather your bones and pitch them to make room for a new visitor.  Yuk.